Lottery Olympics scammers must pay back the money
R25-million in lottery funds looted through a fake Rio Olympics roadshow
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The Special Tribunal has ordered the South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee and National Lotteries Commission officials, to repay almost R25-million. Image of Olympic symbol from Pixabay (free for use)
- The Special Tribunal has ordered the South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (SASCOC) and entities linked to former NLC officials to repay nearly R25-million in lottery funds.
- The funds were used for a Rio Olympics roadshow, with most of the money diverted to entities linked to former National Lotteries Commission chief operating officer Philemon Letwaba.
- The tribunal found SASCOC’s then chief financial officer disregarded his fiduciary duties — and ruled he and SASCOC were jointly liable for R150,000, with the remaining respondents ordered to repay R24.83-million.
- The award of the funding was also declared to be unlawful.
The Special Tribunal has ordered that the South African Sports Confederation and Olympics Committee (SASCOC), those behind “hijacked NPO” Mshandukani Foundation, and other entities linked to former National Lotteries Commission (NLC) officials repay almost R25-million “siphoned” from the NLC.
The funding was meant for a 2016 Rio Olympics “roadshow” send-off. Instead, it ended up in the bank accounts of entities linked to NLC officials, including former chief operating officer Philemon Letwaba.
Last year, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) obtained a preservation order to freeze assets of those involved in the scam.
Last week, the Special Tribunal ruled that SASCOC, those involved in the Foundation and others must repay the money.
Tribunal Judge Brian Mashile also declared the award of the funding to be unlawful and set aside the decision.
The matter has its roots in an SIU investigation which exposed a “scheme” in which non-profit organisations were used to steal money from the NLC. They did this by either hijacking the organisation or using fake documents and the identities of innocent people.
The application for the funding was made by SASCOC on behalf of the foundation, which had only been registered for four months and had no track record.
The grant of R24.98-million was approved by the NLC within six days.
In July 2026, SASCOC transferred all but R150,000 to the Mshandukani Foundation. Within days, most of that money had been diverted to entities linked to NLC officials, including more than R15-million to Ironbridge Travel Agency and R3-million to Mosokodi Business Trust, both with links to Letwaba.
Letwaba also got R450,000 directly and Tsietsi Maselwa, who was manager of legal services, received R600,000.
Judge Mashile said the Mshandukani respondents claimed ignorance of the SASCOC application or any scheme to siphon lottery funds. But, he said, this was “hard to swallow”, given the uncontested evidence of two unwitting “directors” of the foundation that their identities had been “stolen” and used by the foundation to procure registration.
Vinesh Maharaj, at that time SASCOC chief financial officer, told the tribunal that the chairperson of the NLC (then Alfred Nevhutandu) and the late chief executive officer of SASCOC, Tubby Reddy, were “central to laying the groundwork for the process that culminated in the funding”.
The judge said his evidence and that of other witnesses “points compellingly to the chairperson of the (NLC) as being the instigator of the process” and that he had identified an “eligible entity” to receive the funding.
He said all the respondents (barring the two whose identities were stolen), must pay back the money.
Imbizo Events and Minenhle Dlamini had already entered into settlement agreements with the SIU and had honoured their undertakings.
“The grant was not used for the purpose for which it was awarded. Each of the respondents were complicit in the scheme,” the judge said.
He added that SASCOC had claimed it had been placed in an “unenviable position” in that it could not reject Nevhutanda’s proposal that he would identify and handpick an NPO to facilitate the process because it relied on the NLC for funding.
However, SASCOC conceded that it had kept R150,000 which had not been used for its intended purpose.
“All things considered, there is evidence that Maharaj was aware that the process was potentially tainted by illegality … and he disregarded his fiduciary duties and he cannot evade accountability,” Mashile said.
He ruled that Maharaj and SASCOC be jointly and severally liable to repay R150,000 to the NLC and ordered the other respondents to jointly repay R24.83-million.
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© 2026 GroundUp. This article is published under the GroundUp Republication Licence Version 1.0. Email info@groundup.org.za to request permission to republish.